


Dreams and Aiding Endeavors

by donutsweeper



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Ice Cream, Man Out of Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-05-14 04:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19266064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: Considering everything Jenny had gone through she sometimes felt like she was alone in the world. Then she met a man who made her realize she was anything but.





	Dreams and Aiding Endeavors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



Sometimes Jenny found herself watching Abbie and Crane, or, more specifically, watching how Abbie acted with Crane. When the two of them had been kids, before that whole mess with the demon in the woods, Abbie had always been there for Jenny. With their dad gone who knew where and their mom committed, all they'd had were each other and they'd developed that kind of shorthand interaction that two people who found themselves in similar situations tended to have and now Jenny saw something similar between Crane and Abbie. 

It wasn't exactly the same as what she'd had with Abbie, of course. Crane didn't need a parental figure; he wasn't some kid, always angry and lashing out at everyone and everything around him like she had back then. He was lost though, just like she had been. Maybe even more so. 

He was more alone than she'd ever been, than it was possible for her to ever be. Everyone he knew had been dead for probably 200 years or more and she doubted there was anything even remotely familiar about the world for him any more. Luckily, like her, he had Abbie.

Abbie had such patience when it came to Crane and had developed a way of teaching him what he needed to know about the modern world without talking down to him or treating him as if he was stupid. Crane had told her about the post-it notes in the motel room that had taught him how to turn on the lights and water and all of that, but she saw it herself sometimes when she'd been there as Crane came up against something new, something he hadn't had a chance to experience before.

Like the night they were all on a stakeout outside of a certain rare goods dealer's place. Rumor was that he dealt in illegal antiquities and they were waiting to see if any of his "clients" who stopped by after hours were not just some random guy just trying to make a quick buck off a smuggled antique or two but rather some supernatural something or other looking for a reliquary or carving or whatever to be used in a summoning or spell or anything that might tip the scales of this war they'd found themselves in.

More than familiar with how these sorts of things went, Jenny had taken it upon herself to bring provisions. It was nothing fancy, just a cooler filled with a few bottles of water, some packages of trail mix she picked up in the store and the two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches she'd made for each of them. She didn't think anything about how any of it had been packaged until she started getting bored a few hours in and opened it up, figuring it was as good a time as any for them to take a food break.

"Hungry?" she asked, opening the cooler and holding it out to Abbie, who snagged a sandwich and water, before tipping it in Crane's direction.

He muttered something about paying for water under his breath that she couldn't quite catch before offering her a polite, "Thank you, Miss Jenny," as he carefully selected one of bagged sandwiches and a bottle of water. He didn't open either though, he just kind of… examined them for a moment in the dim light of the van, his fingers doing that twitchy thing they did when he was uncomfortable about something, before his eyes slid over to where Abbie was sitting.

As Jenny watched Abbie shifted in her seat to face him a bit better and then grabbed the ziplock bag her sandwich was in on the side near the top, slid her thumb forward and then when the two halves of the top separated slipped her index finger in between the two sections and pulled it open and removed the sandwich and put it on top of the bag on her lap. Crane copied her movements and in a few moments had his own bag open and sandwich out. It was only then that Abbie ran her thumbnail around the plastic seal on the top of the water bottle until she found the perforated bit and then popped it up and pulled it off. After Crane did the same—and placed the small tab in the little garbage baggie he'd insisted they always kept in whatever vehicle they traveled in—she then held the bottle tightly in one hand while twisting it open with the other to break the seal. 

It had all been done without a second thought; Abbie was just a little more careful and slow in how she did something that Crane might not know how to do so he could watch and learn how to do it himself. It wasn't because Crane couldn't or wouldn't ask, Jenny had been there when the flashlight he'd been using died and after he'd clicked it on and off again a few times he'd had no issues with approaching her with 'a query' and held out the object in question as he explained how it was 'failing to function as expected,' but by opening the ziplock and bottle the way she had, Abbie made it so Crane didn't _have_ to ask. It was a subtle difference, but still a nice one, especially for a guy who probably understood only five percent of the modern world. 

After that Jenny started to try to pay more attention to what might be missing from Crane's skillset and she was doing around him. When their coffees had gotten cold only halfway through an all night research session she made a point of grimacing when she took a sip of hers and saying aloud, "This coffee didn't taste good when it was hot, but now? Ugh," instead of just thinking it before bringing the mug over to the microwave and shifting so the microwave's number pad would be in his line of sight as she opened it and set it to run for 90 seconds. Not five minutes later Crane was nuking his own cup. Success.

Once she got in the habit, it was easy to keep doing little things like that, trying to find little ways to help Crane along and get more knowledgeable about the world and more comfortable in it. Like the time she realized that Crane had never had modern ice cream she took it upon herself to change that. It had been a bad day, one that had come after a long line of bad days, because that was her life now, and Abbie was still getting shit from Irving so if anything her day had probably been worse and Crane was still (justifiably) all depressed and mopey about his wife being stuck in purgatory so, bored, fed up, and restless, Jenny decided an ice cream run was necessary.

"I need a break. I'm going to go out and get some snacks. Abbie, what do you want? Phish Food? Chunky Monkey? Oh wait, I know, Chubby Hubby, right? Or do you go more traditional and should I just get you Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough instead?"

"After today? The more chocolate the better."

"Chocolate Fudge Brownie it is. Crane?"

"I'm sorry," he said, sitting up even stiffer than usual as he looked at her uncomprehendingly, "but what are we talking about?"

"Ice cream," Abbie explained before Jenny could. "It's a dessert made with frozen cream and sugar that they then add flavoring to."

"I am aware of what ice cream is; General Washington himself was rather enamored of the treat, but what does ice cream have to do with chunked monkeys?"

Jenny very carefully didn't laugh at that. "They're all flavors of our favorite brand of ice cream. Chunky Monkey is banana flavored ice cream with nuts and chocolate in it. Phish Food is chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and caramel swirls. Chocolate Fudge Brownie is—"

"Chocolate ice cream with fudge brownies, no doubt."

"You got it in one. You want it?"

"I," he began hesitantly before doing his twiddly hand thing and gesturing at her, "trust your judgement on the matter."

Her judgement? Oooh, there were so many possibilities she could choose from. She racked her brain thinking of the weirdest flavors out there, by Ben & Jerry's or not. Or one of the more out there non-dairy brands? Or wait, maybe one of those novelty pops? Something must have shown on her face as she pondered the various options though because Abbie quickly added, "if he doesn't like it, you're eating his. There will be no wasting of ice cream here."

"You are such a spoilsport."

Grinning, Abbie said, "I know."

It was kind of tempting to go pick up an actual ice cream sundae from somewhere, just to see what would happen if Crane tried to eat it. Jenny sort of suspected he'd make a mess of his beard or would get whipped cream in his hair, but then she decided it might be actually kind of fun to just use the opportunity to teach Crane about the wonders of the premium ice cream pint and indulge his patriotism too. "One Americone Dream pint, coming right up." 

Abbie laughed at that, joyful and carefree in a way Jenny hadn't heard in years. "Yes, that's perfect."

"Americone Dream?" Crane asked.

Giggling a little herself at Abbie's reaction, Jenny explained, "It's a specific flavor of ice cream that's proceeds are donated to causes like helping veterans and providing support for kids who need it and things like that."

"A notable endeavor indeed."

"The name is a play off the idea of the American Dream that came about around a century or so ago. Boiled down, it's the belief that in America there's the opportunity for anyone, no matter who they are or where they're from, to succeed here," Abbie added.

"The American Dream," Crane repeated, a little wistfully. "Yes, that is something to celebrate."

"It is," Abbie agreed and with the way she was smiling, the way Jenny realized she was smiling too, it became obvious to Jenny that, yes, Crane was lucky to have Abbie, but it was more than that, they were all lucky to have each other.


End file.
